Sometimes, I think software has it in for me.

Several days ago, I was looking at Steam's ui and thought I'd like a change. So, I did a quick Google search and found the Minimal Steam UI.

And you know what? I kind of liked it. There were some missing colors popping up in the Steam client console and, after quickly switching back to the default skin, I noticed some elements were missing. So began a 2 day quest to fix bugs, comment out comments that weren't commented, and customize it a bit. Add "//", modify colors, and uncomment features I want shown. Simple, right?

This lead to 2 days of Steam crashing every minute and being given the runaround by the VGUI Layout Debugger on where things were actually located and what was actually used.

This debugger only shows you the general sections you should look instead of what is specifically being used. In some cases, I spent hours searching where it pointed me to when what I was looking for was in a different folder completely.

Note the File column. That only opens files for the DEFAULT skin. Not the current skin (provided you are using a custom skin). Furthermore, if I modify resources for the custom skin, Steam won't auto update. Yet it auto updates for the default skin. Now, I could copy the skin over the default stuff, but I want a fallback in case things go awry.

Now, what I hated about Minimal Steam UI was the contrast. Stark white on darkest black. That just hurts my eyes, so I wanted to change to the default skin's color scheme. As a simple test I changed the color of a button. "GrayBG2"     "39 37 35 255" became "GrayBG2"     "39 255 35 255", hit save, restart Steam. Once I got Steam back up, it crashed. Okay. undo the color change. Crash. That's odd. I'll restore from the .bak I made before changing. Crash. Okay fine. I'll unzip the original. Everything works again!

What in the world is going on!? I change one simple variable, nothing major, and Steam flat out dies on me but only if I LOG IN TO FRIENDS! WHY?!

Not to be deterred, I forged ahead leaving troubles variables alone. Once fixes are done, I decide to move forward with changing the layouts a bit. Crash. Crash. Crash. Crash. Crash. Crash. Crash. Crash. And so on and so forth while I try to get the skin the way I want it.

I got to a point where nothing was working. So, I deleted everything in the Steam folder in the hopes of solving it. That worked. Now, what file(s) specifically must be removed for this to work? The logs clearly state Steam is restoring from a cache file, but it doesn't name it. After guess and check, I find AppUpdateStats.blob to be the culprit. So, everytime I get a crash, I delete it and Steam is happy again.

Eventually, I come to the sane conclusion that replacing the Steam.style file in the custom skin would be a easiest thing to do. So, I copy all the custom colors, append them to a temp file and merge it with a copy. No crashes. Awesome!

 The colors for the menu buttons are bit off, but after 2 hours of trying to change them with everything BUT color changing working, I give up and add an outer glow to make them more visible.

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I wish there was some sort of skinning program for Steam that would make this all easier (and be compatible with the 2010 UI update). I can see how I would code it, but after my last encounter with VGUI parsing in Dystopia and fumbling through this skin, I don't ever want to see it again. And yet, I need to practice if I'm to get anywhere in this job market.
***

With that kind of done, I get back to Portal 2 mapping. Fire up the authoring tools, recompile to make sure I didn't break anything, Portal 2 starts...and immediately goes unresponsive. Huh. I'll try again. Crash. I see.. Maybe its the map, so I'll just start it manually. No dice. Okay. Spiral Knights then. "Java has become unresponsive". Seriously?

To eliminate potential issues, I rename all overlay files so Steam will fallback onto the default ones (I don't mind the default layout so, no biggie). Restart Steam, try again, everything except Portal 2 runs. Alright..I disable the overlay for Portal 2. Crash. OH COME ON! Fine, I will go back to the default skin and restart Steam. Crash. Several restarts later and Spiral Knights, Dystopia, and Skyrim work. Garrysmod loaded and crashed to the desktop just like everything else.

So, that's where I'm at right now. Nearly everything BUT Portal 2 is working, I've been working on detailing for a mod and have been neglecting my own maps. So, once I get my own ideas working (in one case, one that I couldn't get working before) and ready for final steps, Portal 2 craps out on me along with half my game library (which isn't saying much actually).

Furthermore, ever since I changed the font color for the word "Crash", Blogger has seen fit to keep defaulting to Red if I so much as move a space away from the last letter! Oh, and now if I want this to show on the blog, I have to set the color to white which means I can't see what I'm editing, but it looks fine on the blog.Do note that that doesn't always work. As you've seen above, Blogger decided it knows better than I do and won't respect my color choices. If I choose white, it goes to black. If I choose black, it goes to red. Aha! I know! Choose gray! Nope.

I am not a happy camper right now.